With Hillary Clinton running for president and John McCain raising his campaign from the dead, the political media recently resurrected the nickname once applied to Bill Clinton: The Comeback Kid. Country music has several comeback figures these days, though one in particular can hardly be considered a kid: Tracy Lawrence turns 40 on Sunday.

Tracy’s comeback is a particularly good one, considering that when he turned 30, he was embroiled in turmoil in his relationships and with the legal system. On that particular birthday, a Las Vegas court convicted him of battery, that incident coming after a four-year series of broken romances and arrests. He had always involved himself in charity events, but his reputation had gotten so bad that some female artists refused to take part in anything associated with him.

Previously, just about anything he released, beginning with “Sticks and Stones” in 1991, was almost guaranteed to go Top 10. After his Nevada misstep, Tracy’s career slowed significantly. He went back to the Top 10 just twice between ’98 and 2006, with “Lessons Learned” and “Paint Me a Birmingham.” Last year, he went all the way back to No. 1 -- his first trip to the top in 11 years -- with “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” released on his own Rocky Comfort record label.

The Tracy who’s about to turn 40 appears to be a much different man than the one who was publicly humiliated a decade ago. He’s had some rough moments -- his bus caught fire, he sprained his ankle, his grandmother died -- but he’s had no legal entanglements to suggest the anti-social behavior remains. He’s been married for eight years and has two daughters, and he seems to be a guy who’s changed his life for the better.

America is a place where people are afforded second chances. Tracy received several, and his comeback at the artistic and the social level is a textbook example of why we’re willing as a society to do that.